You don’t have to be in the real estate industry very long to realize that the assumptions you’ve had about being an agent are far from the reality of working in this dynamic and exciting community. Since most of our potential and current clients will never have the pleasure of experiencing this work first-hand, it’s important that we understand the myths surrounding our industry and know how to communicate effectively with the public to help them sort out what are feelings and what are facts. 

Our pals over at 1000 Watt and Bright MLS did the heavy lifting for us, compiling a report that gives us the stone-cold facts to help back up what we have long known to be true. Below are the highlights taken from the report to help break it down into bite-sized pieces for you. There is also a link to the full report for those who want to go on a deeper dive into the data…you know you want to! Being able to respond to inaccurate or misleading reporting is something that will help you and your team position yourselves as educators and sources of truth within your communities.

From the Bright MLS/1000 Watt Report:

🐂 Fact #1 Agents do not “steer” buyers to homes with higher buyer agent commissions.
Analysis of over one million home sales transactions taking place across six states and the District of Columbia between 2020 and 2023 shows no such relationship between sales activity and commissions.

💰 Fact #2 Commissions do not drive up home prices.
Reports on the settlement have suggested – and in many cases, outright stated – that high commissions are causing high home prices. In this high-cost housing market, it is understandable that people are looking for someone to blame for high home prices. The primary drivers of home prices – properties of the home, qualities of the neighborhood, inventory, mortgage rates, demographics, labor market conditions – are all very much beyond our control. However, it is these supply and demand factors that drive home prices. It is clear from recent transactions data that there is no relationship between the offer of compensation to the buyer’s agent and home prices.

⚖️ Fact #3 Listing a home on the MLS creates an open and fair housing marketplace.
Under the proposed settlement agreement, NAR agreed to create a new rule for MLSs prohibiting a blanket offer of compensation to buyers’ agents in the MLS system. The change means only that offers of compensation cannot be communicated via
the MLS as they currently are able to do, but buyers and sellers can still negotiate who pays what. The mechanism by which buyers and sellers can negotiate and communicate about commissions is still unclear.

The MLS creates an open, efficient, and fair housing marketplace. When brokerages hold listings off the MLS to sell as “private” or “office exclusive” properties, they are keeping information about available homes for sale from a lot of prospective buyers. Public real estate websites and apps, where buyers and sellers browse for homes, rely on the nation’s local MLSs to get their data. The MLSs set rules so that the listing data is accurate and consistent, and then the MLSs feed that information to hundreds of
thousands of websites and apps, making the information widely available
to consumers.

👩‍🏫 Fact #4 Homebuyers highly value a knowledgeable, professional buyer’s agent.
Narrative around the litigation and settlement have suggested that buyers’ agents have become less necessary. The argument goes that since home shoppers can now view homes online, buyers’ agents are not as important and therefore do not “earn” the compensation they receive. 

Buying a home is the biggest financial decision most people make. Consumer research has consistently shown that homebuyers value working with a real estate agent. According to the 2023 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 90% of homebuyers said that they would use their real estate agent again or would recommend their agent to others.